


with a lil' help from my friends

by Flamingbluepanda



Series: Interludes from a Happier Universe [3]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: 5+1 Things, Established Relationship, Families of Choice, Fluff, Gen, Hugs, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:21:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28490826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flamingbluepanda/pseuds/Flamingbluepanda
Summary: Everyone needs a Hug sometimes, Torchwood Included(Or, five times Jack thought about hugs and the one time he thought of nothing at all)
Relationships: Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Owen Harper/Toshiko Sato
Series: Interludes from a Happier Universe [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2073441
Comments: 12
Kudos: 67





	with a lil' help from my friends

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Beleriandings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beleriandings/gifts).



> Bel said she wanted cuddles, its sappy bitch hours, so... yeah!
> 
> Thanks to Nik for the beta, as always, dedicated to Star Wars for being all I have watched today

When Jack put the rule in the book, he was drunk.

It was two days after Alex had done… what Alex did… and Jack was alone, so alone, and drunk off his ass because he was so alone and tired of being alone. He added a bunch of bullshit rules to the rule book because he  _ could  _ now. He was the boss; he could do whatever he wanted.

But then, Suzie found the rule.

And she laughed at him, opened her arms, and said, “Well, where’s my hug, boss?”

And that was when Jack’s idea of a professional management style went out the goddamn window.

* * *

Surprisingly, Owen was actually the one who used it first. He didn’t mean to, of course; Owen would never. 

But three weeks after his hiring, he had a meltdown. He’d had a few of them, all his grief and rage bursting out of him in fits and starts. 

And Jack was walking by the medical bay, and Owen muttered, “I just need a hug. God, I just need a fucking  _ hug.” _

And Jack sprang down the stairs and hugged him. 

He and Owen hugged several times, and he actively started using the rule after almost dying at the Pharm. Tosh was always the first one to hug him, and Jack was usually the second. 

Owen’s hugs were bony but strong. He was a wiry little thing that you wanted to scoop up and spin around. 

Jack loved giving Owen hugs because he felt like he could give Owen some shelter from a world that was so determined to bring him down. He was absolutely intent on getting Owen to smile at least once during a hug, if only because he had a good face for smiles, and he deserved more of them.

* * *

Tosh was next. 

Of course, she was. Jack’s lovely genius, so brave and strong all the time. She was never afraid to ask for what she needed, his Tosh. She would march into his office and demand better tools, a new keyboard, curry for lunch. 

She never asked for comfort. Almost never. Not until Owen’s singular day off after the Weevil fight when she marched into his office, held her trembling lips high, and requested a hug.

Tosh was an around the neck hugger, throwing herself full body into her hugs and turning her face to the side so she could stay there and still breathe. She liked long hugs, with a kiss atop the head to seal the deal. 

They bonded a few weeks later, stuck in the past. Tosh never quite let go of him after that. 

Jack loved hugging Tosh because he wanted to hug her forever. He wanted to hold her high on a pedestal until everyone loved and appreciated how she deserved it.

* * *

Gwen was a hug  _ initiator.  _

She was loud and eager with her hugs. She hugged in joy, not sorrow. She’d wrap an arm around Tosh when she examined something on her desk. Lean her weight against Ianto as they drank coffee. She’d wrap her arms around Jack’s waist and  _ squeeze, _ laughing with joy.

When she did hug in sadness, it was far too quiet, and Jack often whispered dumb things in her ear just so he could hear that snort laugh again. 

Jack loved hugging Gwen because she reminded him that you could embrace in love. He loved keeping her glued to his side, a speck of Boeshanian sunshine in the dreary Cardiff rain. 

* * *

Ianto almost never asked.

He was wary of physical touch. This world and the adults in it had seen a blue-eyed boy from the estates and taken him and  _ beaten him,  _ broken him, until he thought that asking for help was weakness and any smidgen of affection would be responded to with violence.

The first few times Jack hugged Ianto, Jack did so like he was a fragile thing and he would break. As Ianto got stronger and healed, Jack came to hold him more like a precious metal, made strong under pressure but still so rare and beautiful that he needed to be coveted. 

Jack was a selfish man. He liked pretty and rare things. 

He wasn’t there the first time Ianto leaned on the others for support. Ianto had seen those Daleks invade another home and had leaned on the family  _ he  _ had fought for and that  _ he  _ had created for himself. 

When Ianto hugged, he did so with everything in him. He did so with love and passion and fury. He held Jack down like he was the only thing tethering him to the earth. At times, he was.

Jack loved hugging Ianto because he loved him. He never wanted to let Ianto Jones leave the warm circle of his arms. He wanted to keep him there, warm and safe and protected and  _ loved  _ until Ianto was as immortal as him.

* * *

Jack didn’t expect Rhys Williams to become a part of his family.

Rhys was the antithesis of the things Jack loved about love. He was the type of man who wanted to stay at home and watch a game instead of taking his partner out. He was loud and stubborn and brash, and Jack didn’t  _ get it. _

But then, of course, there was Ianto and Gwen, calling them similar and  _ laughing  _ at them.

And Jack realized that being loud and stubborn and brash was how Rhys showed he cared. He was a large man with a large family, and he loved head first, ready to shout it from the rooftops at a moment's notice. 

Rhys scooped  _ Jack  _ up for a hug, sometimes. Swept him off his feet until Jack was howling with laughter, wide and easy and just as brash and loud as Rhys the Rant at his very worst.

Jack loved hugging Rhys because Rhys got it, plain and simple. Rhys understood the importance of a good hug, a good meal, a loud laugh. Rhys was quite the 51st-century man, for such a neanderthal. 

* * *

And, at the end of the day, Jack was only human.

He didn’t know how to drop the captain act, how to let himself act like a person when everyone had told him he was just a monster. 

He was sitting against the wall of the hospital, trembling slightly. 

Alice was alive. Stephen was alive. The 456 was dead. Ianto was alive. Jack wasn’t sure if he was dead  _ or  _ alive, but he just wanted…

And that was when Ianto found him. He didn’t say a word — just held out a hand. 

Jack was so exhausted, and he trusted Ianto, so he accepted. He let Ianto lead him silently through the maze of hallways into the room where Gwen had apparently gathered every pillow and blanket available in the hospital and laid them on the floor. 

Owen was tucked neatly against Rhys’s side with Tosh laying across his shoulders, asleep. He was chatting quietly with Gwen, who had one hand on her stomach and the other around her husband, squeezing. 

Gwen didn’t even look away from Owen. She just moved her legs, letting Jack splay across her and Rhys before Ianto curled on top of him, a slight wheeze in his breath. 

Jack’s hand automatically moved to Ianto’s back, rubbing along his spine and pressing a kiss to his hair. Then he craned his neck and kissed Owen’s knee since it was the closest thing he could reach. One of Owen’s hands slid neatly into his hair. 

Jack sighed, closing his eyes and letting Alice, Stephen, UNIT, the whole damn world float away for a little while. He focused on Tosh’s quiet little snores. On Gwen and Owen chattering about everything and nothing. On Rhys’s little huffs of laughter. On Ianto, his precious lungs shifting and breathing against Jack’s. 

His family was here. He was okay. He was perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr!! www.flamingbluepanda.tumblr.com
> 
> I love you, happy new year!


End file.
